Airbnb is looking to strengthen its oversight of hosts and guests by acquiring a startup specializing in background checks of individuals.
Airbnb is buying California based startup Trooly for an undisclosed amount.
Trooly scans user data from social media, public records and various other sources to verify identities.
Airbnb is hoping to weed out fraudulent listings and scammers and also will likely use the service to stop backdoor deals where hosts and guests circumvent the Airbnb system, costing the company commission.
"We look forward to welcoming the Trooly team to Airbnb in the coming weeks," Airbnb spokesman Tim Rathschmidt told Bloomberg.
Trooly has been helping Airbnb verify user IDs since 2015
Airbnb said the transaction includes Trooly’s intellectual property and engineering team, but gave no further details.
